spam rant

Getting more ticked off at spammers lately, in all forms.

I tend not to answer the phone during the day because the calls tend to be marketers. I'm not sure which ticks me off more, the ones who won't let you go (so I end up hanging up on them) or the recorded calls. Fax spam especially ticks me off because it uses up ink and paper, and those ink cartridges are expensive.

I'm not nearly as easily upset by e-mail spam as I used to (though I guess the rant below may seem to indicate otherwise :-)). Bryan installed a spam-blocker a while back, but I asked him to take it off for me because it turned out that e-mail that I -wanted- was being blocked as well.

An e-mail spam I got yesterday was especially annoying, however. The subject header read "Last chance to unsubscribe!". The text:

"debbie,
Thank you for subscribing to MLM Marketing News

This News Letter    is mailed to over 5,000 people every Friday. Each friday the News Letter discusses such topics as How to successfully participate in a MLM organization

If you no longer wish to receive my News Letter, please write me back with the word 'unsubcribe' in the subject. Otherwise, you will receive my News Letter once per week.

To subscribe a friend to my News Letter:

have them send an Email message my Email Address above with the word 'subscribe' in the subject. They will be added automatically.

Thank you,

Meghan Stevens.

Note this is your last chance to be removed!"

Never mind the fact that Meghan doesn't know how to spell the word "newsletter" or "unsubscribe" and never took the time to learn the fundamental rules of grammar or spelling or punctuation (or how to use a spellchecker, for crying out loud). Illiterate spammers tick me off more than spammers who know how to write.

Never mind that even typo-free, this letter would have been laughably abysmal as a marketing tool (unless the purpose was to generate a lot of bad PR) and that the only subscribers she's likely going to get are people who are morbidly curious to see exactly how bad the "News Letter" is going to be.

The thing that ticks me off the most, however, is the elevation in levels of obnoxious irritation, that spammers like Meghan think it's now acceptable to THREATEN recipients of their unsolicited garbage with continued mailings unless they take a specific action.

(seetheseethe)

End of rant.

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Jeff cooked dinner last night, a yummy chicken and rice dish. We finally did get to watch Magnolia (with our newly-repaired DVD player! See yesterday's Blathering). We both had mixed feelings about the movie...reallyreally liked parts of it, but were somewhat let down by other parts. I think I might have to see it again. I loved the music, especially all the Aimee Mann songs! To Dave Weingart: you're right, "Wise Up"'s a great song. :-) I have Aimee Mann's "Whatever" CD (thanks for the recommendation, Rand), which I love.

Ruth's book, Pants Off First!, is going into its second printing!